Planning work at Penzance Dry Dock - a lot more than we bargained for!

 

Off again - this time to Penzance Dry Dock 

We bought Xavier from Holland in the middle of the Covid pandemic and so we only got to see the boat once before we bought it.  As a project boat, our concern has been that it is fit to cross the chanel and arrive in Cornwall. We realised that work would be needed before we could refurbish the inside and replace the continental electrics and the plumbing. The survey in the Netherlands had stated that the hull had 'no corrossion'.    

Now with the boat in our possession we were faced with the reality. As we began to uncover the layers of chipboard that covered the inside hull, to inspect it for ourselves, we discovered that despite our surveyor in Holland giving the hull a clean bill of health, there was actually a good deal of rust on the inside. This had to be removed. Although the hull was of thick steel and very solid, we found that there was corrossion inside and pitting which is in effect small pits that are weak spots on the exterior.  We needed professional advice.  

We asked a trusted surveyor to inspect the boat and he agreed that remedial work was necessary but that first the boat needed to be out of the water to inspect everything properly.  In the end our worries were confirmed when a small hole opened up and rather than plug this and any other holes that might appear, we decided to move the boat to Penzance dry dock immediately for remedial work.  In the end this turned out to involve overplating the entire hull and some way up the sides with 6mm and 8mm steel.

We were so reluctant to leave our mooring so soon after we had arrived and considered how we might tackle the problem in situ at Gweek.  In the end we decided that we needed to be totally confident that the hull is ready for another 100 years of service.  Penzance Dry Dock is near to us and we had already commissioned them to construct a canopy frame for the welldeck as well as a companionway entrance to improve access into the decksalon.  Although all this work is going to be expensive, we need the peace of mind that will come from a thorough professional examination and new steel to cover the hull. We had budgeted for the work hoping it would not be needed. If it was needed, so be it.

After many discussions about how to approach the problem, we decided the only safe way for us to proceed was to have the entire hull overplated with 6mm steel and 8mm thick steel in some areas.

Overplating on the rivetted hull

Extra thick plates on the supports in the middle

Steel plate shaped and craned into the dock ready for welding.

Thank goodness we had a myriad of distractions!  The house in Falmouth needed total refurbishment inside and out.  Including scaffolding and repainting the outside.  We were well and truly busy this summer and this helped as our minds were not then completely absorbed with the work on Xavier.

We still had regular site meetings and regular payments to make, but we could see the work with our own eyes, unlike the experience in the Netherlands, and we knew that this would give us the confidence that patching holes could never do.

We also pledged to rebuild the boat with every part of the hull below water level visible and accessible inside!  

Arrival - first 2 days work

By 6pm Thursday 16 June, almost high tide.  Alan started to bring Xavier round from a spot sitting on the mud outside the Seal Sanctuary round the corner to where the river opens out just below Gweek. 

He was impatient to get going and did not want to wait for Simon and the crew from the boatyard to accompany and assist. He can be very stubborn! There were a few slightly awkward moments and exchanges!

The boat was turned and manourered through a narrow gap to its place alongside the quay.

The boatyard crew were on hand to deploy fenders where necessary as it made its way past several smaller boats.

Our first working day has finally arrived where we are in control of what happens and not dependent on anyone else. Phew!  Our first task is to remove the metal disks from portholes.  These need to be ground off, cleaned sanded and repainted.

There is also an awful lot of the previous owners posessions to remove.  Masses of flat pack furniture and other rubbish.  Many trips to the recycling centre and advertising stuff on Facebook marketplace, free to collect. Occassionally we have a rest and enjoying the view.

Alan and Annette visited today and gave Julian some tips.

Sian came to visit with the girls and they both slipped.  One of the deck and the other on the steps. Lessons learnt by all!

When we got home Julian ordered some two part epoxy blacking paint

Annette and Tom

Well earned fish and chips from the van that visits the village green every Wednesday.

Xavier leaves Mylor Creek - destination at Gweek. Home!

For the past two weeks Xavier has been on a tidal mooring and waiting for the high tide to take us up the Helford River up to Gweek.

Mylor is a perfect spot, so picturesque.  But we could not get anything on or off the boat except what we could carry on our backs as the boat was moored front on.

We also found water in the bilges, from her time at Geertman's.  They said there had been a leak from a water boiler under the sink. Several gallons of water had been sloshing about in the bottom of the boat for several weeks!

Cockwells Boatyard Mylor Bridge

The hull was pretty well covered in chipboard when we bought the boat and finding the water from the boiler made us realise we needed to be able to see all the inside of the hull and how important it was to ensure that everything was sound in the bilges before we focused on the upper part of the boat. 

Xavier is a spot in the distance Carrick Roads

 

We really are aboard! - but not in Gweek

Getting aboard is a little tricky at the moment, 

Xavier is finally in Cornwall and at its temporary mooring at Mylor Bridge boatyard.  The boat arrived at Mylor on Sunday 29 May

We are on a tidal mooring next to the barge you see above on the left, and we have started to get to know the boat.  Julian has been looking at all the technical stuff and thinking about how we will get hot water, solar panels and shore power and all the comforts of home. I'm thinking about how we will renovate the interior.  

I have been desperate to remove the peeling varnish on the wheelhouse exterior, so that's what I'm focussing on, using paint stripper (trying not to get the scrappings on the painted deck or in the environment).  Many of coats of paint stripper are required and each needs scrapping off, followed by scrubbing with a metal sourer and finally sanding before applying a thin coat of Indial Rosewood Coloron wood dye followed by Osmo UV protention oil. The maintenance on the wheelhouse has been neglected, but the wood is all hard and there is not a sign of rot, except on one cornern of the wheelhouse roof, which is not the actual wheelhouse and we are going to replace the roof.

Here is a video of the boat coming to rest on the tidal mooring.  Note the hand signals from the bank!

https://youtu.be/MEDFc3WHwoE?si=SnDdtIh0T20nD96n

We have had two days of brilliant sunshine, but today it is cloudy and wet, so we are going over on our bikes, it's just a few miles from Falmouth, to have a tidy up and wash the decks and side rails.

We are at this mooring waiting for a really high tide so the journey to the top of the creek at Gweek will be easily achieved with plenty of water to manouver in.

Meanwhile we are enjoying Gweek and looking at the other barges moored here including another 30 metre long barge moored up by the bridge.  We will be next to the cafe.

Xavier arrives in Ramsgate

Xavier looks very smart entering Ramsgate

Nearly 12 months after buying the boat, it had been stripped down, painted, essential work carried out and the engine has proved to be capable od a channel crossing. Alan moored the boat in Ramsgate overnight, so far so good, but when he and the crew tried to depart the next day, he realised he was dragging a spud pole along the bottom.  No one knew how it had dropped or how to raise it and there appeared to be no hydrolic oil in the the place where hydrolic oil should be. Checking and overhauling the spud poles was the very last thing on the list of jobs that the boatyard said that they had completed.  But it was a gloomy time to know that 3 paid crew were ready and waiting to move and the was a great big metal tube that was lodged in the seabed!

Our mooring still awaits us, an empty space in front of this other large barge.  

Thankfully, Alan is experienced in every kind of boat related problem and he managed to get the spud poles up and tie them up. 

About mid day, Alan took a road trip to Dover to look at the sea conditions.  The swell was too great.  But around mid-day the following day, we looked at Marine Traffic website and saw that Xavier had taken to the seas and was approaching Deal.

The plan was to reach Eastbourne tonight and Swanage tomorrow night.

Update, they reached Eastboure the first night and  Portland tonight Saturday 28th May 2022.

 

Xavier is somewhere between Dunkirk and Ramsgate!

At 7am this morning, Alan began the crossing from near Dunkirk following the shipping lane to Ramsgate. Will he turn south to begin the voyage to Falmouth or east to his mooring in Chatham? The wind and speed will dictate.

Here is a coincidence. Xavier and sister ship Zomerland passing each other in Zwartsluis 5 May 2022.  See You Tube video. https://youtu.be/d3iRoFbySz8?si=APhFL-V9YlUTTAV6

Also featuring Julian's finger!

Here are some photos of the journey.  All went pretty smoothly and the engine worked like a dream.

Alan hammering along the Dutch canals.

The chanel crossing begins at last!

Finally on 19 May 2022 Zavier started the 2 week journey from Zwartsluis in the Netherlands to Gweek in Cornwall UK.  They crew consisted on head skipper Alan along with 2 other crew.  Julian provided backup in the car getting shopping for them and providing the funds for fuel.  Here is the You Tube link to the moment they set off.

https://youtu.be/d3iRoFbySz8

Will our 1930's Dutch barge ever cross the channel?

 We first saw Xavier our 1932's Dutch barge in Medemblik in Holland on Wednesday 5 May 2021

The owner was one of the last liveboards, in a posh marina and the authorities refused to renew the residential permit if he sold the barge to someone who planned to stay in the marina. Unsurprisingly they did not want these big old barges with their occupants pumping raw sewage into their marina that was full of holiday yatchs.  Xavier had no black water holding tank.  We were something of a dream come true for the owner.  He had plenty of potential buyers for this lovely wide barge of 6x30 metres, a perfect size to make into a home.  But the buyers all wanted to make their home im Medemblik, who would not!  The owner could only sell it to someone who wanted to take the boat away. Or start a legal battle with the council.

Fast forward a few months.  Xavier was ours. A survey had been completed which found that the boat was sound.  We had plans for the internal layout of the boat and planned to strip out all the electrics and plumbing, and add a large black water tank, so we were not too bothered about the existing internal arrangements, so long as the engine and all the operating gear were fully functional.

Our destination and future home was at the head of the incredibly beautiful Helford Estuary at the lively and lovely Classic Boatyard at Gweek.

Gweek, Cornwall

Xavier needed a lot of work internally, but we do up houses for a living and we have owned a Dutch Barge before.  Residential moorings in Cornwall are hard to find, especially for a large boat. It was so exciting to have a mooring in such a lively village with pub and shop on the doorstep.  Our spot in the boatyard was perfect.  It was screened by trees on the adjacent island, but it had an open aspect with lots of sun.

 

Our mooring, waiting for us at Gweek, Cornwall

Our boat sales broker found a yard called Geertman in Zwartsluis Netherlands, near Zwolle.  It seemed ideal as it was littered with old Dutch barges in various states of repair over a huge site.  A family concern and the young owner spoke English which was quite essential as we were not going to be there to oversee the survey or the work required.  We were in the first phases of the first lockdown and we had only been able to travel to see the boat as our own house was under offer and this was to be our permanent home.

Internal photos of Xavier as she was when we bought the barge.

Moored at Zwartsluis

By the June 2021, Xavier had been taken to Geertmans and a surveyor was commissioned to look over the boat.  He identified quite a bit of work.  We negotiated a small discount with the owner of the boat.  

We asked them to follow the work set out by the surveyor.  We also wanted the current leaky skylight removed and a much larger hole cut for a new skylight.  The boat was to be stripped down to metal and painted.  Internally all of the equipment necessary for a chanel crossing was tested and replaced or fixed where necessary.  A large black water tank was fitted underneath the decksalon next to the existing huge fresh water tank.  This was given a thorough clean.

All this should have been a smooth process of painting the exterior of the boat whilst the boatyard worked through the list of jobs the surveyor had provided.  What followed was months of delays and excuses. Work on our boat always seemed to be at the bottom of the to do list, yet we really were at the mercy of the owner of the yard to manage the list of works as we were unable to travel to supervise.

Work continues at Zwartsluis.

We visit the boat at Zwartsluis

By December 2022 the work was complete.  Hefty bills had been paid for the entire exterior paint job and the mechanical work to make the boat seaworthy.  This included sealing up, i.e. welding the lower portholes. I was not looking to the removal of the metal disks and making good, but the insurance required it, so it was done.  

But by then the weather had turned - we were in the middle of winter and a crossing on a flat bottomed boat was not safe. By March and April, we hoped that a crossing would be possible, but unfortunately our skipper had his own problems and he could not commit.

April was also the time that we had agreed with Gweek boatyard that we would start paying for our mooring.  Never guessing the year before that the work and waiting would have taken so long.  

It was not until May 2022, that Xavier finally left the Netherlands.

The search for a Dutch Barge. We found our ideal boat and home!

In early 2022 we had sold our house in Moretonhampstead and we had also sold our replica Dutch Barge in France. We were looking for an adventure but we also had a sizable and growing clutch of grandchildren who were mostly in Cornwall. We did not want to live abroad. This prompted us to take a trip to Gweek as the Helford Estuary was a place that I had always longed to live. Julian did not want to give up on boating - although we are really no sailors. Cruising the French canals can't be classes as sailing by any means. But we knew that this was a beautiful area and one of the few places in Cornwall with residential moorings.

The beautiful Helford Estuary

We were in the early stages of lockdown and we were renovating a house in Wadebridge so we made some trips to view the boatyard in Gweek and started considering the possibility of living at Gweek on a Dutch barge. Gweek is at the head of the Helford Estuary and it a lovely village with a shop and a pub and best of all a thriving and working classic boatyard.

Once the seed was sown we lost no time in talking to the boatyard and establishing whether there was a space for a large Dutch barge.  We met the owners and all was organised.  Now we just had to find the right boat.

First sight of Xavier in Medemblik marina

We scoured the adverts in the UK, Netherlands, France and Belgium.  As we were in the middle of covid, we knew that we could only travel abroad if we had sold out house and were looking for a new one.  Luckily that was exactly our situation and we found a large Dutch barge that seemed to fit our needs.  It is always very difficult to work out your needs in such a situation.  To work out what the priorities are.  We decided that as we had spent the past 10 years renovating houses, and decorating them to a high specification, there was no point in buying a barge in tip top shape, as our impulse would be to remodel the inside to our specifications.

I was a little worried about feeling cramped and a priority for me was to find a boat with either a large decksalon or something that let plenty of light into the main living area.  I did not want to live in a cargo hold.  

We set of to the Netherlands to look at what seemed our ideal Dutch Barge at a place called Mepple.

Although there always seems plenty of live aboard boats for sale, there were not that many that were of the size we wanted, that had a traditional shape and were configured to allow plenty of light into the living accommodation. All our hopes were pinned on this boat but when we viewed it we immediately knew it was not for us. Inside it was dark and I was not keen on the configuration of the only light space which was the wheelhouse. 

We were a little deflated after seeing the first boat and the cafe's tea offering did not help!

Sitting in the car in Mepple we decided to have a last trawl through the adverts for another possibility.  We looked again at a barge called Xavier that had really great proportions.  It was 30 metres long and over 6 metres wide. It was one of those moments when I just could not work out why we had not considered it before.  Maybe it was the scruffy canopy and all the bits and bobs that were attached and hanging off it, who knows, anyhow we had nothing to loose if we went to see it.  We decided to view it alone from the exterior first and then if we liked the look of it we would try to contact the owner. 

Xavier was an 1932 Luxemotor.  Out of all the different types of Dutch Barges, Dutch Luxemotors are considered the most desirable to convert to homes as they were built to give the boat owners a degree of luxury that had previously been unknown. 

Owners often craned their cars onto the roof and this had been the case with Xavier.  The internal accommodation at the stern was fitted out for long term comfort. With a beautiful slipper end and great proportions, this barge was beautiful.  

Not only that, but since 2005 the superstructure had been completely remodelled to be fitted out as an hotel barge. The entire cargo hold had been shortened by cutting the boat in half and removing a sizable portion.  New metalwork was constructed to make living accommodation and unusually the main salon was raised with large windows so that there were panoramic views on both sides from this large living space.  

It was only after we bought the boat that we realised how unusual is is to have this degree of light in the living accommodation.

It felt a bit cramped inside the lower section as there were so many cabins!

The salon was spacious but the ceiling was damaged and everywhere was fake wood!

As soon as Julian saw the boat from the outside he could see it was exactly what we wanted, just as we had been able to see that the other boat wasn't right.

The wheelhouse was in good condition although the entire boat needed TLC

An internal inspection revealed two entirely separate living spaces which were at that time both rented out separately by the owner. The former cargo hold had been converted to a good specifiction. All the windows were sound, the metal was thick and had a feeling of solidity. The original brass portholes were in place and in good condition.  

Best of all the covered well-deck made a fantastic wind and weather proof conservtory (proved at the time as it was incredibly windy when we viewed the boat).  This led to the open plan salon that was a beautiful and light living space.  All of he metalwork that had been done when it was converted not long before was really solid and well made and the layout was really fantastic with it's raised decksalon and storage area underneath.

The wheelhouse had a comfortable seat but there were bags of woodburner everywhere.

Another jewel was the original skipper's accommodation with it's beautiful etched glass teak doors and more large windows letting in plenty of natural light. The entire interior was actually a bit grim, having been let out and it's first conversion after 2005 had been as a hotel boat, so there were a multitude of small cabins that were currently crammed to the gunnels with 'stuff'.

The internal layout is fine, but the ceiling needs attention, all of the decor is tired and all the new furniture and fillings is laminated plastic!